DOI Heft:
No. 61 (March, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Studio-talk
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22773#0074
Studio- Talk
the former, as already stated, was brought to com-
pletion and is now on view.
Situated in the centre of the building, and divid-
ing it into the Portrait Gallery and the Museum of
Scottish Antiquities, the hall is forty-four feet
square, and is surrounded on the first-floor level by
a gallery, or ambulatory, carried on pillars and
pointed arches, which are repeated above to carry
the roof. On the ambulatory level, however, an
aisle, over the vestibule and divided from the
ambulatory proper by arcading, makes the hall the
entire width of the building. The walls of the
lower hall are of brick, of a beautiful red colour,
and serve as a quiet and reposeful base for the
decorations which have been concentrated upon
the frieze and spandrels of the lower arcading, and
upon the walls and roof of the ambulatory above.
Painted against a background of gold, the gor-
geously costumed procession of Scottish historical
characters, from Carlyle and Livingstone to the
ancient Celts (whose pre-historic memorials fill
many a case in the adjoining museum), with which
the artist has peopled the frieze, makes a brilliant
show and forms an appropriate decoration for a
building dedicated to Scottish history. Back to the
time of James III. almost all the portraits are
taken from reliable originals, and before then Mr.
Hole has tried to embody the historical conception
of the people represented, while throughout he has
chosen some characteristic action or accessory for
each, and has been careful to render costume with
accuracy. Decoratively, however, there is a want
of culmination or of accent in this unceasing crowd
of figures; and the filling of the spandrels between
the frieze and the arch-mouldings with the arms of
twelve Scottish towns has little relationship to the
effect of the whole.
As the ambulatory is lit from both sides, the
decoration there is confined to the end walls, each
of which is divided by pilasters into four compart-
ments. On the east wall the subjects are The
Mission of St. Columha to the Piets, The Landing of
Queen Margaret, The Battle of Largs, and The
DECORATIONS IN THE AMBULATORY OF THE
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
BY WILLIAM HOLE, R.S.A-
the former, as already stated, was brought to com-
pletion and is now on view.
Situated in the centre of the building, and divid-
ing it into the Portrait Gallery and the Museum of
Scottish Antiquities, the hall is forty-four feet
square, and is surrounded on the first-floor level by
a gallery, or ambulatory, carried on pillars and
pointed arches, which are repeated above to carry
the roof. On the ambulatory level, however, an
aisle, over the vestibule and divided from the
ambulatory proper by arcading, makes the hall the
entire width of the building. The walls of the
lower hall are of brick, of a beautiful red colour,
and serve as a quiet and reposeful base for the
decorations which have been concentrated upon
the frieze and spandrels of the lower arcading, and
upon the walls and roof of the ambulatory above.
Painted against a background of gold, the gor-
geously costumed procession of Scottish historical
characters, from Carlyle and Livingstone to the
ancient Celts (whose pre-historic memorials fill
many a case in the adjoining museum), with which
the artist has peopled the frieze, makes a brilliant
show and forms an appropriate decoration for a
building dedicated to Scottish history. Back to the
time of James III. almost all the portraits are
taken from reliable originals, and before then Mr.
Hole has tried to embody the historical conception
of the people represented, while throughout he has
chosen some characteristic action or accessory for
each, and has been careful to render costume with
accuracy. Decoratively, however, there is a want
of culmination or of accent in this unceasing crowd
of figures; and the filling of the spandrels between
the frieze and the arch-mouldings with the arms of
twelve Scottish towns has little relationship to the
effect of the whole.
As the ambulatory is lit from both sides, the
decoration there is confined to the end walls, each
of which is divided by pilasters into four compart-
ments. On the east wall the subjects are The
Mission of St. Columha to the Piets, The Landing of
Queen Margaret, The Battle of Largs, and The
DECORATIONS IN THE AMBULATORY OF THE
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
BY WILLIAM HOLE, R.S.A-